


Why Don't You Put That Fucking Phone Down?

by itcouldallbesosimple



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Established Relationship, Eventual Smut, F/F, Sex Toys, but not before a little relationship drama
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-14 12:29:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28670793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itcouldallbesosimple/pseuds/itcouldallbesosimple
Summary: Three times that Kara absolutely despises Lena’s phone and one time when maybe it’s not so bad.
Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Comments: 15
Kudos: 526





	Why Don't You Put That Fucking Phone Down?

**Author's Note:**

> With a little inspiration taken from "Phone Down" by Lost Kings.

Is three years a long time to be together? 

It’s enough time for the jitters to have worn off. It’s enough time that somehow, even in these days of endless technology, they’ve memorized the actual digits to each other’s cell phones. It’s enough time to have found routines where there were none before. 

Three years is enough time that Kara’s got her own drawer in Lena’s dresser and a couple hangers in Lena’s dressing room. _I’ll give you two, Kara_ , _but I really can’t spare any more._ Lena’s got about fifteen different slinky silky things in the top drawer of Kara’s dresser and well more than a couple hangers in her closet. _You can fold those pants up and put them in your dresser, Kara, but if you ask me to fold this vintage Chanel and put it in a drawer I’m giving your apartment key back._ Three years is certainly enough time to learn the basics about high-end fashion, or at the very least that it’s not supposed to be folded and put in a drawer. 

And three years is enough time that getting into bed together each night (because that’s what they do now--three years is definitely enough time that they don’t sleep alone anymore) usually doesn’t make Kara’s heart thump and her mouth go dry. Usually. When her heart does thump and her mouth does go dry now, three years is long enough that when Kara gives Lena that look, Lena tucks away the book, or the budget reports, or the blue screen of the phone so that Kara can have her way with her. Three years is definitely enough time to know that Lena likes it when she has her way with her. Fifteen minutes was enough time to learn that. 

Three years is also enough time to have ebbs and flows. Weeks of pure, maddening joy and passion followed by weeks of ho-hum routine. Weeks of quick glances across kitchen counters and the tops of laptops and weeks where those quick glances turned into Kara’s head resting in Lena’s lap with a movie quietly buzzing in the background. 

In their three years, though, Kara’s never seen Lena this stressed out. Her hours are longer and later than usual, which is really saying something because she tends to average about 60 hours in the office each work and several more at home. Kara often waits up for her, even if it’s just so that she can give Lena a long hug and bug her about eating dinner. When she walks through the door some nights, there’s even sometimes a strand of hair loosened and falling out of her tight ponytail to trickle down her neck. That was really Kara’s first big clue that work was worse than usual for Lena - a stray hair unraveling from its tight, perfectly coiffed confines. 

Being a CEO is a big deal, obviously. _You have to know I can’t always fly away with you when you land on my balcony, darling, right? Though you do look dashing in that suit._ Obviously. And Kara knows what it’s like to work a high-pressure job. She works two, for goodness’ sakes! Being a journalist alone is tough work because...deadlines. But saving National City from disaster on a daily basis is sort of a challenge, too. At least it’s a challenge when there’s kryptonite involved, or super-high frequencies, or tight spaces. But Lena’s under some otherworldly pressure. Not literally, of course. Literal otherworldly pressure is mostly Kara’s domain. 

Maybe three years isn’t actually a long time to be together when they have yet to encounter a roadblock of this magnitude in their relationship. An astronomical roadblock - like a meteor but before it burns up on its way into the atmosphere. Huge. Icy at first, but burning hotter by the hour. 

It had never been an issue before. 

That dreaded phone. 

I 

“What are you doing?” Lena asks, looking up from the blue light of her phone’s screen. 

It’s late. It’s the after-midnight-but-Lena-just-got-home kind of late that’s been happening recently. Mondays are usually nights at Lena’s. The room is dark and she’s perched against the headboard of her monstrosity of a California king bed. There’s no reason Lena’s bed should be this big and Kara’s told her as much more times than she can count. 

Kara’s just brushed her teeth and washed up before bed, a typical pre-bed routine. 

“I’m hot,” she says, eyeing Lena and her reaction. Lena’s eyes stay on her, maybe even look her up and down but Kara can’t quite tell in the dark. 

“You never sleep naked,” Lena responds. It’s less said in a sexy way and more in a flabbergasted way, so not the way that Kara had planned for this to go at all. 

“Never? I can recall a few times.” Kara’s ready to list them off. That might get the plan back on track. There was that time maybe two months ago, on Kara’s Earth birthday. And then also the time when...

“Those times started with something on, at least,” Lena murmurs, but then her eyes are back on her phone. 

“Well I’m hot,” Kara huffs.

She stands in place and watches Lena return to her phone, scrolling and scrolling and then typing something. Where there was some optimism and excitement just moments ago, there’s now a bubbling anger and she forces herself to break her hardening gaze at Lena and walk toward the bed. 

It’s not long after she’s tucked under the covers, flipping from her back to her side and then on her stomach that she remembers why she doesn’t usually go to bed naked. It’s hard to fall asleep with the sheets touching every single nerve-ending in her body. Those other times that Lena had mentioned she’d be so tired and sated that she’d fallen asleep right away, her legs tangled up against Lena’s soft skin. She’d hoped to feel that same way tonight. She’d also hoped that she’d be able to work some of that built-up stress out of Lena’s body, too. 

“Kara, are you okay? You keep fidgeting.” Lena says it in her soft, late-at-night voice, but it still sounds distracted. 

She flips her body to face Lena, eyes looking up at her, watching her for a moment. Lena’s hair is down now and draped around her shoulders, but it’s still got a kink in it from being tied back tight all day. When Kara tunes in, she can hear her heartbeat -- slow and even for a moment, then pulsing. Her face is, of course, still mesmerizing. It wouldn’t be obvious to most everyone else, especially in the dark, but that vein in her forehead and that “concentration crinkle,” as Kara likes to call it sometimes, have emerged. In fact, they might now be permanently a part of Lena’s face, at the rate that her job is pushing her. 

She looks so, so tired. 

“What are you doing?” Kara asks. They haven’t had much of a chance to actually talk about the stresses of Lena’s work, and while that wasn’t exactly Kara’s plan for this evening, maybe a calm conversation about it can turn things around and back toward the plan. 

“I have a board meeting tomorrow, darling,” Lena responds, scrolling and pressing on the screen. “I just need to review our financials from the past few months.” 

Kara jerks her head up so that her face is resting against her palm, elbow pressing into the mattress. The sheet slips off her chest and she can feel the cool air of the room hardening her nipples. 

The quick shift must throw Lena off because she’s looking in Kara’s eyes and then they’re drifting down. 

“When you’re done, how about you review my financials?” Kara says suggestively, with a wag of her eyebrows. 

Lena huffs out a quiet laugh and the smile stays etched on her face.

Kara sits up further, extending her arm so that she’s almost sitting and the sheet falls down to her waist. Lena’s still caught up in her and she leans in to whisper against her lips, “Come to bed with me.”

Lena’s eyes flutter shut and her lips part to meet Kara’s. It’s soft and slow, but just on the edge of something else. Kara’s hand trails down her arm and she can feel Lena’s delicate shiver and her goosebumps against the pads of her fingers. She breaks the kiss to trail her lips and tongue down Lena’s neck and feels Lena exhale shakily, leaning into it a bit.

“Come to bed with me,” Kara whispers again, her hand finally reaching Lena’s phone to confiscate it. She’d throw it across the room if she could. 

Instead, Lena pulls back and grasps her phone tighter. Lena knows Kara could pull the phone from her hand with just the smallest display of strength, but she also knows Kara would probably rather die before she’d actually act on that ability. 

“Stop,” Lena whispers. It’s quiet and Kara can feel the regret in just that single word. Kara’s hand drops from the phone and Lena leans against Kara’s head and drops a kiss against Kara’s hairline. When she pulls back, Lena looks at her for a moment with something between pain and guilt and then drops her eyes to the widening space on the bed between them. 

“I need to do this,” she whispers. There’s a little crack in her voice on the word “need” and Kara decides to leave it all alone. She sinks back down so that she’s on her back. Her head rests against its own pillow and the quilt is drawn up to her shoulders again. She can see that Lena’s legs are drawn back up to perch her phone atop her knees and scroll through the tiny spreadsheets that glow blue on her phone’s screen. 

It’s like Lena can hear every thought that pulls at her, once Kara’s caught her breath and relaxed her muscles, once she’s staring at the ceiling. Three years might have given Lena that power. She looks down at her but Kara doesn’t want to meet her eyes, afraid that she’ll give away just how much a simple, momentary rejection feels like so much more. 

“I’m yours after tomorrow, okay?” she says, hand reaching out to rest atop Kara’s chest for a moment. If Kara believed her, she’d take her hand and pull it up to her lips for a quick kiss. But after three years and countless recent nights just like this one, she turns to face away from Lena, heaves out a sigh, and closes her eyes. 

II

On Thursdays, they stay at Kara’s place. In fact, Thursdays at Kara’s has been one of their longest routines in their time together. It even dates back to pre- Kara-and-Lena, when they were just Kara and Lena. Thursday nights are game nights and it didn’t take long for Lena to go from newly-invited, to staying late to help clean up, to making out with Kara after the last wine glass was loaded into the dishwasher, to drinking coffee the morning after.

At first, Kara was worried that Lena would hate spending the night at her place. It’s just so _not_ -Lena. Most obviously, her place doesn’t look like a luxury hotel suite. It’s actually lived in, which means there are some stains on the countertops, the couch has some wear, and that one window in Kara’s bedroom gets pretty drafty in the middle of winter. 

It also means that it feels like Kara, and then it feels like theirs, a bit, too. There’s Kara’s first published article, framed and hanging in the living room. There’s the stack of well-worn DVDs beside her TV. There’s also the tiny Star Wars memorabilia sprinkled in what seems like every room of the place. But there’s also the new wine rack, with a couple of the reds that Lena likes. And there’s a new Big Belly Burger takeout menu stuffed in Kara’s ever-growing folder of menus. And there’s a new wall of Lena’s chargers -- one for her tablet and one for her phone and two for her two laptops. On Kara’s dresser, there’s also a picture of them, Lena laughing with her head thrown back and Kara smiling and looking at Lena like there’s no one else in the galaxy. 

Thursdays are game nights and Thursdays are Lena’s night to stay over, and both happen on this night, but not in their typical fashion. There’s the usual crowd at game night, which helps Kara take her mind off of the fact that it’s the usual crowd minus one: Lena. Like the last four Thursday nights, Lena’s still at the office. 

Well, she’s pretty sure she’s at the office. She hasn’t explicitly asked and Lena hasn’t explicitly said, but that just makes sense, right? But then Alex needles, kind of like she did when they were angsty teenagers back in Midvale. The second Thursday that Lena hadn’t shown up, it was _What’s up with Lena, you guys ok?_ Kara’s grown more adept at ignoring the needling. She knows it’s there, but it’s embedded within the question, so she puts on a smile and answers the surface-level question instead. The third Thursday that Lena hadn’t show up, it was _No Lena again tonight, huh?_ And tonight, it was _Are you sure she’s at the office, or that she’s doing work? This is four Thursdays in a row, Kara._

She knows Alex’s loyalty is to her, sometimes to a fault, which is clear now. She prods because she wants Kara to be honest with herself and her relationship with Lena. She prods because she’s protective of Kara’s heart, not because she dislikes Lena. But Kara shakes it off. She can’t let Alex’s doubts wiggle into her headspace. 

Except she does. Because when the last wine glass is loaded in the dishwasher, Alex hugs her and whispers good night and gives her one last look. Kara knows that there’s one more thread of questions coming, but she pulls back and flicks her eyes up to Alex and shakes her head. She can feel her cheeks get hot and she sighs and looks at the ground to hold off whatever broken-voiced emotions threaten to come out. A firm _Don’t_ is on the tip of her tongue, because she’s almost sure that Alex is going to start asking more questions. But she doesn’t. She tilts her head up and kisses Kara on the forehead and whispers _You can talk to me, you know. When you’re ready. I’m sure it’s nothing, really. I just don’t like seeing you like this and I can’t help but blame her a little. I’m sorry._

Kara watches her leave and feels momentary rage bubble up. It’s for Alex, who’s questioning her girlfriend's honesty. And it’s also for Lena, because Alex’s questions are settling into a place in her brain where they make sense. 

She steps into the steam of the shower and lets it consume her. It’s rare for her to take a night time shower, but tonight it’s necessary. She knows she needs it -- or something -- to wash away the warring voices in her mind. 

When she steps out of the shower, Lena’s there, sitting on the edge of the bed and pulling her heels off. 

It’s late and she’s worried that opening up a conversation will lead to all her insecurities laid bare, so she walks over to Lena and gives her a kiss and then goes to her drawer to find something to sleep in. 

When the lights turn off and blue lights up Lena’s face, Alex’s questions worm their way back in. Her eyes won’t shut and her ears pick up every tiny tap of Lena’s fingers against the screen. Tapping and tapping and tapping. 

And then Lena laughs. It’s a muffled laugh, but a laugh nonetheless. She must think Kara’s asleep. 

But that laugh breaks free the dam. 

“Who do you stay up and text when we turn the lights off?” Kara asks. Lena jumps a little because Kara’s not whispering and she definitely did think Kara was asleep. 

Once the momentary shock has worn off, she responds. “What? You think that’s what I’m doing?” Kara’s not looking at her, because she knows she can’t keep it together, continue this conversation and look at Lena, but she can tell just by her tone that Lena’s got her face twisted up in a scowl. 

“Sometimes you’re typing. Like a lot.” As she says it, she realizes how stupid her logic is. Typing does not equal cheating. Typing doesn’t even equal texting. 

“Sometimes, yes.” The blue screen must go to sleep at that point because the room dims. She’s got Lena’s full attention now. “A CEO’s work doesn’t stop at 5pm, Kara. If I see an email I can easily and quickly respond to, then I will.”

“At midnight?” The conversation is rolling now--almost too quickly--and her mouth keeps moving before her brain can even kick into gear. 

“At four in the morning if I’m awake,” Lena shoots back. It’s matter-of-fact in tone, but it feels angry. 

Kara looks over at her and sees Lena looking down at her. The bags she’s carried under her eyes these last few weeks look even more pronounced and her lower lip, which is always sort of pouty when she’s not smiling, is tucked between her teeth. 

“Do you want to see? Do you not believe me?” There’s a waver in her voice and Kara can’t decide if she hates herself for pushing the conversation this far, or if she hates Lena’s job for making her feel this way, or if she wants to keep pushing on these questions because Lena has some control over how much she works. This rift can’t not be her fault in some way. She has some control over righting their relationship. 

Lena’s voice breaks a little when she whispers, “Do you think I’m cheating on you? That I’d text some fling while you’re lying next to me? In your bed?” 

Kara watches as she wipes the tears spilling down her cheeks. Kara doesn’t look away. 

Lena takes a deep breath and sets her phone on the bedside table. She slides under the covers until her head rests on her pillow and Kara can feel her breath warm against her cheeks. 

“It will be over soon, Kara. I promise.”

Kara nods and then watches Lena’s eyelids droop and flick open and then droop again. 

She watches Lena sleep for at least fifteen minutes before she closes her eyes, too. She hopes Lena’s right, that this will all be over soon. 

III

Friday night deadlines keep Kara late working on a story and by the time she crashes into Lena’s apartment in the early hours of Saturday morning, Lena’s actually asleep before her. Her body is sort of slumped against the headboard of the bed and her neck tilts at an uncomfortable looking angle. She moves to tuck Lena in and sees her phone slipping out of her hand and takes it. She wants to crush it in her palm, but there’d be no turning back from that mistake. So she sets it on the bedside table and decides not to plug it in. It’s silly and probably a little petty, but it feels like the best way to get her revenge at the moment. 

Their late night talk from Thursday lingers but not conversationally. It just occupies a little corner of Kara’s brain, where she replays what she might have said differently. After replaying their conversation for what felt like the 50th time, she realizes that she probably shouldn’t have gone in guns blazing with the accusatory cheating route. There had never been any evidence of that and Kara had never thought Lena capable of cheating on her. After that, the replays of their conversation instead included lines like: _Lena, you’re unhappy. What can I do?_ or _This much stress is unhealthy_ or _Tell me about what’s going on at work that’s making you feel this way_. These benign fantasies of a conversation gone right put her to sleep pretty quickly on Friday night, but at least when she wraps her arm around Lena, she feels Lena stir and press back into her. 

And then, it’s the fourth Saturday of this wretched, astronomical roadblock in their relationship. 

Saturday--a weekend. Lena shouldn’t be working--not at work and not from home. She should be waking up late with Kara. They should be getting brunch with their friends. But Kara’s not surprised to wake up in an empty bed and find a note on the counter that she’s gone into the office for the morning. _Be back by noon. Promise. xoxo._

She meets up with Alex Saturday morning for coffee. After devouring her third muffin, she tells Alex about her Thursday late night conversation with Lena. Alex is quickly convinced that Lena’s not cheating or lying and Kara regrets not having this conversation with Alex on Thursday after game night, before she let Alex’s doubts become her own. But they’re here now and Kara’s ever the optimist so she asks Alex to help her figure out how to talk to Lena, really talk to her. 

She’s got a plan. Or an opening line, at least. And then some stems that could thread from that opening line. But first, she’s got to wait for Lena to get home. 

She heads back to her place to keep playing through their likely conversation later on and because she really doesn’t want to wear any of the clothes she keeps stashed at Lena’s. She watches a couple of episodes of the new cop drama but just barely. She’s mostly thinking about what Lena’s reactions might be to her opening line of confrontation--gentle confrontation, that is. And then it’s 11:55 and she speeds through the house to pack a small duffle bag for the night at Lena’s and arrives at her apartment just before noon. 

She flips on the TV when she gets there, but mutes it when it becomes background noise interrupting the foreground clamor of her thoughts. At 11:59, she starts listening for the ding of the elevator and the clop of Lena’s heels against the marble floor of the hallway. Noon to 12:05 are torturous. She doesn’t want to think that Lena would break her promise. 

At 12:06, Lena opens the door with an apology on her tongue. _Six minutes late isn’t a broken promise, Lena,_ Kara says when she wraps Lena up in a long hug. When she pulls back, Lena still looks apologetic and reaches into her bag to pull out her work laptop. Lena’s _It’ll be over soon_ guarantee from Thursday night echoes in her mind as Kara watches her boot it up and say something about getting changed and spending the afternoon on the couch. It feels like the babiest of baby steps, but it’s still moving forward and the “good” in Kara leaps to be grateful for this tiny step. Lena’s not in the office. She’s not _present_ with Kara, at least not while she’s hammering away on her laptop, but Kara’s feet are tucked under her warm thigh and they’re sharing the same couch. Kara decides that she’ll take what she can get, for now. 

Kara loses a few hours of the afternoon to a sun-soaked nap on the couch and awakes to a darkened room, with just the blue aura of Lena’s computer against her skin. She orders them a pizza and some cannolis and decides to take a walk to go pick it up herself, so that she can plot out how to breach this conversation she’s been planning with Lena. By the time she gets back, she decides that over dinner is not the right time. It’s been too long since they’ve eaten a meal together and she wants everything to feel like normal. Which it does. And for which she is so, so grateful. 

Until Lena pulls her computer back out and gives Kara that same apologetic look again and Kara lets out another one of those heaving sighs and picks up the remote to look for something new to watch. For half a moment, she considers bringing it up with Lena. Her mind flips and flops between two opening lines, _Can we talk?_ and _We need to talk about your work, Lena._ On the surface, the two lines seem so similar, but she’s second guessing each word of each line and by the time she thinks she might have something figured out, Lena’s up off the couch and putting in her earpiece to make a phone call. 

A phone call that is three hours long and has Lena pacing back and forth between the bedroom and up the hallway and around the island in their kitchen. It has her grabbing the computer from the couch and quickly opening emails and documents and contracts. Kara tunes it out. Maybe Sunday morning will be the right time to breach the topic, after they’ve both had some rest. 

When Kara’s head hits the soft fabric of her pillowcase later, she hears Lena end the call. She’s half asleep when she feels Lena’s warm body next to hers. And then she’s fully awake when she sees the room illuminated by a dim blue light. 

Years from now -- because what happens next will become a story that will hang between them for years to come -- Kara will alternately blame her drowsiness, and then Lena’s work, and then the blasting heat in Lena’s apartment, and then even Alex for her reaction. She’ll never be proud of what she’s said, but she will maybe be a little bit grateful that her emotions get the best of her and she says it just the same. Years from now, they’ll laugh about it. But that’s a long ways away.

“Why don’t you put that fucking phone down?”

Her tone isn’t even angry. She’s past anger. It’s pure exhaustion. 

Lena’s hand drops. The blue of the phone sinks to the side of the bed so that it’s just barely illuminating the room. And with that, she’s completely still, her jaw dropped open just a fraction and her eyes on Kara’s back.

Kara lets out a weak, shaky sigh. Her body rises and falls unevenly with her breath. There was her plan for confronting Lena, the “best case scenario” she and Alex had thoroughly discussed that morning over coffee and muffins. And then there was the “worst case scenario,” which obviously they’d never discussed, but she’d surely just allowed to slip through her lips and become the night’s main event. 

It’s hard to figure out what to say next because Lena hasn’t said a word. Kara can’t hear her typing away on her phone and it seems like maybe the room has dimmed a bit - maybe she’s actually put her phone away, Kara thinks, but without as much optimism as she might have had a few weeks ago. 

Then, the warmth and weight next to her is gone, there’s a rustling of Lena’s silk robe slipping against her skin, and the door to the hallway opens and shuts.

Kara turns to her back and looks at the door, as if to double check that Lena’s actually left the room and not gone into her dressing room. There’s no reason Lena would go into her dressing room. Worst case scenario by a mile. She can’t remember when she’s ever cursed in front of Lena much less to her. She’s not even sure of the last time she’s cursed, period. She glances over at the clock on Lena’s nightstand. 1:39 am. Too late to call Alex for advice, not that her advice actually helped the first time around or the second, for that matter. 

She takes a few deep breaths and squeezes her eyes tight and then the door’s opening again. The hallway light is on and she looks up to see Lena’s silhouette standing in the doorway. Her cheekbones are highlighted by the light behind her and the curve of her waist is accentuated by the tie in her short robe. It would be sexy, if the circumstances weren’t what they are. 

Lena lets out a shaky breath, but her voice is steel. “Please don’t talk to me like that ever again.”

Kara sits up against the headboard quickly and nods. This was not supposed to go this way at all. All these nights of Kara’s building anger and then despair over the glow of Lena’s phone. Rightful emotions, she thinks. 

They’d rarely gone to sleep at the same time in the last four weeks. Meaning no late night whispers and fingers tickling against the smooth curve of Lena’s hip. Meaning no Lena’s hips pressing back against Kara’s, pulling a gasp from Kara and then quickly turning into Lena’s gasp when Kara would pinch the swell of Lena’s buttocks. Meaning no Lena turning over quickly, pinning Kara to the bed with her thighs bracketing Kara’s hips and her hand pulling Kara’s toward the wetness between her thighs. 

Those are some of the first memories Kara had, in thinking about what they were missing as her anger built over time. But she also missed the way Lena’s breath would even out under her arm, or the way Lena would whisper “I love you” against Kara’s neck just before her eyes fluttered closed. For the last month, she’s fallen asleep as Lena’s eyes have strained against a tiny blue screen. And for the last month, she’s woken to find an empty bed, just barely warm from Lena’s body. 

“I won’t. I’m sorry.” 

That’s what she knows she has to say first, as much as it pains her for the tables to feel so completely turned. Lena was the one who was supposed to apologize, not Kara. She feels Lena’s weight and warmth on the bed again. She sits on the edge of her side of the bed with her back to Kara. 

Her voice is quieter when she whispers, “I’m sorry, too.”

She breathes in and out steadily for a moment and Kara waits, knowing that she's working herself up to say something else. 

“Work has been so hard these last few weeks. Once I actually get caught up on what I’d hoped to accomplish for the day it’s in the earlier hours of the morning and you’re already asleep and then the day just starts all over again and it happens all over again.” 

She sees Lena’s hand go up to her face and Kara can tell she’s wiping away tears. Kara crawls toward the edge of the bed and kneels behind Lena, her arms pull her in so that Lena can lean back against her. She feels Lena’s head tilt back and rest on her shoulder and there’s a wet kind of hiccup, like Lena’s stuck between laughing and sobbing. Kara turns her head to press a kiss to Lena’s temple and pulls her tighter. 

“You have to give yourself a break, babe,” she whispers against Lena’s cheek. “It’s hurting you, and me, and us.”

“I know.”

“Knowing and doing,” Kara responds, echoing a line she’s heard Lena say dozens of times, though usually under much less serious circumstances. _Remember when you said you knew that Aldebaran rum would lead to disaster, Kara? Now look at you -- I’ve got to call Alex to help me get you out of here. There’s a difference between knowing and doing, darling._

Lena closes her eyes and leans back into Kara again. “I know.”

“So what are you going to do?” Kara says, sliding her feet off the bed and moving to kneel between Lena’s legs. “What can I do to help?” she asks, looking up at Lena, pleading with her, her hands on Lena’s thighs. 

Lena’s hands run over Kara’s. “I put my phone on the kitchen counter.”

Kara’s eyebrows shoot up. She’d been expecting another promise that the end would be soon to come, not something like this. 

“Don’t let me go get it,” Lena continues, “and remind me to do that every night.”

Lena is one of the most disciplined people she knows, but not when it comes to giving herself a break. “Every night? You think that’s realistic?” Kara asks. 

“Nearly every night?”

“I think we need a number.”

“Five out of seven nights.” Kara will work for six out of seven nights later, but five seems like a good possibility at the moment. And maybe, somewhere long down the line, they can agree that work stays at work. 

“Think you can do that?”

“I think I have to,” Lena says, pulling on Kara’s hands to try to pull her to her feet. 

“Yeah.” Kara responds, leaning into Lena to pull her body closer, Lena’s head tucked against her stomach as she stands. 

“Come to bed,” Lena whispers. 

For the first time in weeks, they fall asleep together at the same time and Lena whispers “I love you” against Kara’s neck just before her eyes flutter closed. 

IV

“Wait -- Monday and Tuesday, right? You’ve already had it twice this week.” It’s the following Friday night and they’re actually going to bed at the same time again tonight. Though Lena appeared to struggle over the past week with the new rule, Kara had been quick to enforce it. She’d even been able to deftly manage the unforeseen loophole Lena had hoped to use, when Lena pushed her bedtime back later and later in order to stay up at the kitchen counter and scroll through a draft of L-Corp’s new strategic plan. 

“I’m giving it to you tonight,” Lena says and Kara can hear the smile in her voice. She’s standing in the doorway to her bedroom, with the light from the hallway providing Kara with a perfect silhouette of her curves in that silk robe. It’s the same pose from six days ago, but under very, very different circumstances.

Kara leans up against the headboard. From Lena’s look and the tone of her voice, she’s fairly confident Lena will be moaning her name within the next twenty minutes, but she doesn’t feel nearly as confident based on the actual words coming out of Lena’s mouth. 

“I don’t want that thing,” Kara scoffs. 

Lena drops her robe. Her hair is wavy and falls against her porcelain skin. She’s wearing a bra that looks like it’s a cup size too small and the swell of her breasts spills out over the intricate black lace at the top. Her black, lacy panties leave little to the imagination and she’s sure she’ll rip those off first, but she’s a lot less sure that Lena’s bra should come off at all tonight. 

Once Kara gets her bearings, there’s some excitement because _yes, this is happening_ and it’s been more than a month. But there’s also a little trepidation. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to film this...us” because what else could the phone be for?

Lena’s knees hit the edge of the bed and she leans in Kara’s direction so that she’s on all fours on the bed, eyes looking up at Kara. A nipple threatens to spill out from the top of her bra and Kara’s so ready for it. Her eyes flit between Lena’s chest and Lena’s eyes and Lena’s red lips and Lena’s _crawling_ toward her. She almost reconsiders her earlier statement. She wouldn’t mind a video of this the next time Lena’s away on a business trip. 

“No,” Lena whispers, “that’s not a good idea.”

As she gets closer, Kara sees something pink--hot pink--clutched in her other hand against the sheets. 

Kara tears her eyes away from Lena for just a moment to try to figure out what it is. “What’s....happening? I mean...I mean I like it I think or I’m going to...but I’m not sure what _it_ is, I guess?” Kara asks as her voice gets progressively higher. 

Lena crawls until she can more firmly push Kara up against the headboard and she can bracket Kara’s hips with her thighs. Kara’s always liked the way that Lena’s skin looks against her own, and especially the soft skin of Lena’s thighs.

“See this,” Lena holds up her phone. “And see this,” Lena holds up the hot pink thing, which is definitely some sort of sex toy. One Kara’s never seen before. It takes a while before she can pull her eyes away from the toy and all of its possibilities and remember that Lena’s also holding her phone. Her phone which is supposed to be banished from the bedroom for the rest of the week. 

Kara’s forehead crinkles in confusion. “I don’t understand the phone part.”

“You put this inside of me,” Lena says holding up the pink thing, the sex toy. It’s got this kind of oval looking shape on one end that’s just two inches or so. That part is probably the fun part. And then there’s this longer, skinnier part to it, which is probably to help take it out, Kara guesses. Over the last three years, she’s become less of a stranger to sex toys. 

“Yes...” she says, reaching for the pink thing. Lena maintains her grasp, but lets Kara touch it. 

“And you use this,” she holds up her phone, “to control it.” 

“Why can’t I just control it with my hand?” Kara whines. 

“Because it doesn’t work like that, darling. Let me show you the app.”

Lena’s phone boots up with that blue aura that Kara hates and she can feel her jaw tighten instinctively for just a moment. As it loads, Kara asks, “Have you used this yet?”

Lena looks at her incredulously for a moment, but then Kara registers that it’s clearly fake incredulity. “We’ve been together for three years, Kara. If I buy a new toy, you’ve always got first dibs on guiding me through a test drive.” Her voice dips low by the end of the sentence and Kara feels it straight between her legs. 

Kara’s eyes glaze as she remembers the glass dildo Lena pulled from a discreet box their first year together. She’d been apprehensive at first. Toys hadn’t done much for her in the past, even strap-ons (though that had eventually become Kara’s most favorite toy of all time). But then she’d seen Lena slide the glass dildo slowly inside herself and her eyes jumped from the wetness between Lena’s thighs and the way that Lena’s head tilted back and her mouth dropped open and her neck strained. And then maybe toys were ok. And when Lena had curled a finger, beckoning Kara between her thighs and putting Kara’s hand on the end of it, when Lena had told her _Go slow at first, darling_ , then maybe toys were more than ok. And when they’d had to change the sheets and promise to pull out some towels for the next time they used it, well then maybe toys were completely, definitely good-to-go. 

“Do you think we need some towels?” Kara whispers, remembering that time. Her voice cracks on the last word and Lena flicks her eyes up from the app set-up to take in the pure want on Kara’s face. 

Lena licks her lips and nods, “Just in case?”

“Right...just in case. You know, for the test drive.” Kara moves her hands into the 10 and 2 position like she’s working a steering wheel and wiggles them around like Speedracer or like an idiot. “Right, towels,” she says and is in and out of the linen closet with super speed. 

When she gets back, Lena’s already off the bed and scrounging through the box hidden away in her dressing room where Kara knows she keeps most of the toys. 

“What are you doing?” Kara asks with a whine. Her hope that Lena would be moaning her name in twenty minutes’ time seems less likely, though maybe the payoff will be well worth it. 

“I need to read the directions,” Lena says, her voice muffled from inside the dressing room. 

“But you’re a tech genius.”

“Well I’m a little flustered right now.” She says, making her way back with a tiny booklet to sit on the edge of the bed. Kara walks on her knees to sit behind her. 

“ _Four times more powerful than most vibrators?_ ” she reads from over Lena’s shoulder, _“_ Lena, can you handle that?”

Lena scoffs and takes a quick glance at Kara behind her. “Why do you think I bought this? You know just as much as I do how badly I need some stress relief.”

“Woah _. This works through the internet?_ I could do this from anywhere in the world? Could it be hacked? Oh, no, Lena, what if someone hacks into your powerful vibrator and orgasms you into a catatonic state?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Kara,” Lena says, flipping the page. 

“Okay...you’re the tech genius.” The new page lists some _Added_ _Fun_ _Features_ . “ _Sync your sex toy up with music?_ What song should we sync it to? Or to a playlist maybe?”

Lena sets the booklet aside and taps something on the phone. “No, Kara.” 

“Ok, it’s synced” Lena says, and Kara can mostly guess what that means so she decides not to inquire. Kara looks over Lena’s shoulder as she clicks through the menu on the app. “Here are the different settings…”

“ _Fireworks?”_

“Probably want to save that one for the grand finale,” Lena says drolly. “If you decide you want to be a bit more hands on, once you’ve tested out the settings on the app, you can create a pattern with the settings and loop it, okay?” She scrolls down and points out some other features. 

“My brain is having a hard time processing this.”

“I’m sure you’ll figure it out,” Lena says, pushing the phone into Kara’s hand and standing up at the foot of the bed. She slips her panties down and Kara pulls her to stand between her legs. Kara kisses the soft skin of her stomach and hears Lena gasp. 

“I have a feeling you’re going to punish me with my phone for all of those times I punished you with it.” Kara pulls back to look up at Lena’s eyes looking down at her. Before she can say anything else, Lena reaches back and unhooks her bra and Kara’s eyes go wide. 

“Oh...yes...definitely,” Kara says with a dry mouth. 

Lena kneels and looks up at Kara, her hands hovering over the waist of Kara’s jeans. “Punish me, then.”

Kara can’t help the shiver that courses through her body and before she can say or do anything else, Lena’s pulled Kara’s pants off and her shirt off and she’s pulling her sports bra up over her head and pushing her down against the bed. 

“Do you want to help me put this inside?” Lena whispers, hips bracketing Kara’s. 

Kara can only nod vigorously. 

Lena moves off of her and gets herself settled at the top of the bed, pushing a few extra pillows up behind her and leaning against the headboard. Kara shifts the towels underneath where Lena is now resting and looks up at her from between her legs. 

At some point in all of this, Lena pulled the lube out of her nightstand and is coating the pink of the toy until it’s glistening. Kara watches as her delicate hands work over it. 

Lena hands it to her, and Kara holds it reverently in her hands for a moment. Then, she scoots herself along the bed so that she can see between Lena’s legs and gently work the toy inside of her.

Lena winces for half a second as Kara works it slowly inside, but then when it’s fully in, Kara looks up and Lena gives her a nod. 

Kara sits back, marveling at her perspective before she remembers the phone at the foot of the bed. She picks it up and awakens its blue hue and presses the first button that makes sense: _Low._

The toy rumbles to life and Kara can hear it buzz quietly. Lena’s hips jump when it comes on and a surprised smile comes across her face for a moment before it settles into more of an open-mouthed haze.

“Fuck…” she whispers, almost to herself. 

Kara’s eyes are between her legs, marveling at how such a small toy can make such a quick initial impact. “Good?” she asks, looking up at Lena. 

“So good.” Lena nods. 

Lena reaches down, her hand first running over her breast, pinching at her nipple gently, then slowly down the sensitive skin of her stomach, and then to swipe a finger over her clit. 

Kara watches it all in slow motion, but then interjects, albeit hesitantly. “Don’t...I want you...I want you to draw it out.”

“Kara,” Lena whimpers. If Kara had half a mind, she’d check the clock because here’s Lena, moaning her name within the first twenty minutes of embarking on this sex toy adventure. But between the way that Lena says her name, the way she’s running her hand back up her body, and the incessant soft buzzing, she can’t think of anything else. 

“Please, Lena,” she says, reaching out to run a finger over the top of Lena’s foot. “You know it’s always better that way.”

Lena nods and her eyelids flicker closed then open again. She licks her lips and her mouth drops open again. 

Kara hasn’t touched the phone again, she just sits dumbfounded, naked on the edge of the bed, one leg draped against the towel and sliding up against Lena’s calf and the other tucked underneath her body. She watches as Lena slowly starts to move her hips up and then down and then twist, until she finds a slow pattern. Someone who doesn’t know Lena the way that Kara does probably wouldn’t even notice it, but Kara’s eyes tear away from Lena’s face to focus in on the minute rocking of her hips. It causes her to do the same reflexively. 

“Kara…” Lena whines and Kara can see that Lena’s looking down at Kara’s hips now. Lena knows her well, too. 

That snaps Kara back to attention and she picks up the phone. She’s momentarily hampered by the number of choices on the app, but finds the speed control again and presses the button to shift it from low to medium pulses. 

Lena’s hips jerk and a surprised moan comes pouring out of her. Her hand starts to move back toward her center but stops when Kara says, “Don’t do that.” It’s not forceful, just a whispered reminder against Lena’s natural instinct. The more she gets worked up, the better it will feel. 

Lena’s hand pulls away but her thighs come together, squeezing and shaking. The leg that Kara had resting against Lena’s calf pushes her legs back open. “Kara,” she whimpers. 

“Be a good girl for me, Lena.” Kara’s voice is low.

Lena’s hips rocket up for a moment and she gasps. 

“Will you be a good girl for me?”

“Yes,” she whines. 

They hadn’t discovered their mutual interest in building one another up with whispered praise until their second year together. Before that, they’d mostly just moaned each others’ names and some directives. But one game night, after Lena had finished an entire bottle of wine, she said that she wanted Kara to talk to her more in bed and then told her exactly what to say. The first several times, Kara had repeated those lines back to her word-for-word with quite positive results. And then a night of Aldebaran rum helped Kara find her inner improvisationalist and helped bring Lena to her knees. 

Kara looks back down at the app. She considers flipping it up to the highest speed but looks up quickly at just how wrecked Lena looks already and decides against it. She wants to draw this out, but she doesn’t want to torture her. The toy is buzzing pretty vigorously already. Instead, she pulls up the pattern options and sets it to _Wave_. The buzz quiets suddenly and Lena looks almost relieved for a moment before she hears it crescendo back to medium speed, and then back down again and crescendoing again. 

Lena’s hips move in a new rhythm with the change in pattern. And now, instead of a wail at the change of the speed, she releases a soft feminine moan every time she breathes out. 

Kara reaches down to her own clit to give herself a little relief and if Lena wasn’t currently so fucked out of her mind, Kara’s sure she’d be getting a mouthful about “fairness” from Lena. 

Instead, Kara strokes herself slowly to the rise and fall of the wave. Her eyes flicker between Lena’s distressed and yet blissed out face, the way her fingers tweak at a nipple to keep themselves from reaching lower, and the wetness slowly dripping from between her legs and onto the towel between them. 

“Kara please…” she sobs. That snaps Kara out of her trance and she plucks the phone up from beside her. Kara’s never seen Lena this wrecked and undone. Her hips rock uncontrollably up and off of the bed and her left leg is _shaking_. A hacker could definitely render her catatonic with this thing. The thought that this is Lena’s kryptonite passes through her mind for a moment and almost makes her laugh. 

Lena’s mouth twitches around something resembling some words strung together but it comes out garbled and gasping.

She has half a mind to set an intricate pattern on the app, like Lena mentioned before, but now she’s feeling so on edge that she doesn’t want to spend her time buried in Lena’s phone, even if it is the cause of so much pleasure. Instead, she moves the setting over to _Fireworks_ and abandons the phone at the edge of the bed to crawl a little closer to Lena. She doesn’t move too far up -- she still wants to see everything, but she needs to touch her, even if it’s just to run her fingers gently up and down the inside of Lena’s leg. 

“Do it, Lena,” she says in a gravelly whisper as she nears. “I know you want to. Touch yourself. Make yourself come.”

Lena hand shoots down and rubs her clit. It’s quick and messy and her hand seems like it blurs it’s moving so fast. Her hips rock up again and then reach their peak and pause and her mouth drops open and a shaky, _loud_ , moan tears from her chest and her other hand flies down to the toy and pulls it out, and the towel absolutely soaks. Her hips push up weakly once, then a second time and her finger against her clit slows but doesn’t stop and she sobs out a second loud moan, the tingles of pleasure carrying out to the tips of her fingers and toes. 

Kara’s eyes are wide, trying to memorize every moment of this experience but especially the last thirty seconds. 

When Lena finally stops moving and falls back to Earth, Kara moves up Lena’s body and presses into her. Lena’s heaving breath seems to be slowing down, but Kara’s is only ratcheting up. 

“Lena,” she whines when her head is buried against Lena’s panting chest and her hips push with force against Lena’s leg. 

“Just...God....just give me a minute. You’ve fucked the life out of me with that thing.”

“Can’t,” Kara whimpers, her hips rocking harder and the headboard claps gently against the wall. 

“Fuck yourself against me, Kara. Use me. Let me feel you, darling.”

That’s all it takes. Lena almost never uses the same words, but each time Kara’s teetering on the edge like this, somehow Lena says the most devastating thing and Kara absolutely loses it. The rocking of her hips shallows but it’s with just as much force. Each breath Kara takes is wrenched out of her with a groan. And then Kara’s hips snap and Lena can’t help but moan in a way that most definitely means they’ll take a breather and start on round two soon enough.

“You come so hard for me, Kara, always” Lena whispers hotly against the side of her sweaty neck and Kara’s hips snap again and she desperately grabs at the back of Lena’s thighs to pull her closer and then her hips snap again quickly and hold. Kara’s holding her breath and Lena can feel her neck straining. Finally, finally, Kara’s hips begin to minutely rock against her, riding out the last of her rapture and Kara’s arms crash out from under her and her head falls heavily against Lena’s shoulder. 

It feels like a lifetime, but it’s probably only a couple of minutes until their breathing evens out and Kara can feel the slickness she’s rocked onto Lena’s thigh and the wet spot on the towels between Lena’s legs. 

Lena’s hands run along Kara’s sweaty back, up to her hairline and back down again. 

“Maybe my phone isn’t such a bad thing after all?” Lena says hoarsely with a smile on her lips. 

“I think we can make an arrangement to have it in the bedroom one more night each week,” Kara says into Lena’s neck, still too exhausted to lift up her head. 

“I don’t think my body can handle this on a weekly basis.”


End file.
